Galapagos: a Boobie lovers paradise

Hello and welcome. We are writing this from Quito, Ecuador where we now have a few days R&R and sightseeing. We are just back from an 8 day boat tour in the Galapagos Islands. Clean clothes are at a real premium, however we have just dropped off 8 kgs of fairly smelly stuff to a laundry across the road. I am confident that we will be smelling fresh and clean again in no time.
Enough of our dirty laundry - on to the Galapagos. First, essential facts for those not familiar with Galapagos (like us 9 days ago....):

Location: 1000km off the coast of Equador, roughly on the ecuator (funnily enough). It is reached by flying to the islands, then hopping on a boat to get around them.

Climate: For us it was mainly warm, 25 degrees, and mostly sunny, with occassional overcast/misty period.

What they are: About a dozen main islands, plus heaps of little ones. The land and surrounding waters are a National Park and World Heritage site.

Famous for: The wildlife found there, much of which is not found anywhere else in the world.

They say the Galapagos are paradise for wildlife lovers and they are not wrong. Even for us, whose interest in wildlife can probably only be categorised as passing when compared to some of the fanatical wildlife enthusiasts we met, being there was an amazing experience. Of particular note (and probably of interest to some of you) is that on many of the island boobies are abundent - you can get up close to them and we took plenty of great photos of them. More on that later.......

We spent 7 nights on a 65 ft motor sailor - bunk beds in a separate cabin with private bathroom. There were 12 other guests with us, although the composition of the group changed halfway through the tour as some people got off and others got on. The other people in the group were great, although the two groups were very different. The first people were a bit like us - mainly early to late 20s and spending at least a month in Sth America. The second group was in the main a bit older and was charaterised by about 3 people who were fanatical wildlife lovers - 2 marine biologists and 1 ornathologist. They were hillarious - they had books, binoculars and super zoom lenses. They would scour the landscape in search of some creature of interest and could distinguish between the 14 different types of finches found on the islands!?!? Rather than see a splash in the water, they would see a "juvenile southern pacific spotted manta ray feeding on plankon brought to the region by the southern currents typical of this time of the year"...... The crew and naturalist guide were good, very friendly and knowledgable and with the exception of the guide, whose english was pretty good, we could practice our limited spanish on them, as english produced only smiling faces and no real action.

After that lengthy introduction, here are some of the highlights for us:

• Snorkelling/diving: We snorkelled at least once a day. Although the water clarity and temperature were not perfect, the sights and experiences were unique. We loved our numerous encounters with young sea lions underwater who loved to play with us - darting up to your face then diving away, chasing and being chased. They also interacted with other sea life, including chasing and playing with penguins, turtles and each other and chasing and nipping the tail of a reef shark. We also had a number of close encounters with sea turtles, including being able to float just a metre or so away from them as they ate algae from the rocks. We saw a couple of small sea snakes and plenty of white tipped reef sharks - on one occassion I came upon about 8-10 all sitting in a bunch, and again was able to float a metre or two away from them as they rested. We also swum amongst galapagos penguins who would dart around and under us as they played and fed. We also saw much more, including rays and tropical fish etc. Had one scuba dive, but was not a highlight really.
  
• The reptiles: The islands are home to amazing reptiles such as giant tortises, sea turtles, iguanas - both marine and land and lots of other lizards. As with just about everything in the Galapagos, you can get right up close to the animals and they are not bothered at all. Here is a pic of Michelle and a tortise, who was so comfortable with her prescene that she let one rip while being photographed (the tortise that is.....). The iguanas are very cool. The land ones get pretty big, I think about 1.8m and 16kg! The marine ones can swim and dive underwater.

• The landscapes: The islands all orginate from volcanic activity. Some are a bit like Rangitoto, but others are even more barren and "moonscape" like. There are heaps of different types of cactus. Some are huge others tiny. Some of the rocks have great colours, blues and reds. Every island was quite different. There are some beautiful white sandy beaches and other rocky areas of coastline.
• Sea lions and other marine life: There are sea lions everywhere. Again, they were relaxed about you being near them and you could get within a metre or so of them as they lay in the sun. There were plenty of cute pups to be seen. Dave you would have been quite at home, as they baaaa'd like little lambs to get the attention of their mum. We saw lots of other marine life, including a humpback whale and hammerhead shark.
• - Last but not least... the birds: We spent plenty of time looking at birds. A personal favourite were the boobies - and they were everywhere. We saw blue footed, red footed and Nazca boobies. For those who are interested, attached is a pic of a nice pair. Once again we saw all sort of birds and without exception they too were almost oblivious to our prescence.

The Galapagos was a unique place and, for us, was well worth the time and expense of getting and being there. We loved living on the boat and the days were alway full and reasonably varied.

Next we join a month long tour of Ecuador, Peru and the top of Bolivia. Hope this finds you well.